SLAM DUNKS. . .

The Wizards fast-tracked their decision to get rid of Javale Mcgee at the trading deadline when they learned that he was going to ask for $14 million per as a free agent. . . . The Grizzlies called the Wizards when they were doing their due diligence on Gilbert Arenas. Memphis was told he was fine, which isn’t at all how one Wizard official remembers him. “Lazy, manipulative and out of shape,” was his is scouting report. . . . When the Heat lost by 16 to the Thunder and by 15 their next time out to Inndiana, it was the was the first time they had lost st consecutive games by double digits since sign--ing Lebron James and Chris Bosh in 2010.

Doc Rivers’ son, Austin, could be a late lottery pick. Some GMS think he’s a classic AAU product. He’s competitive enough to play in the NBA, but his inability to get others involved is seen as a drawback. “Too much AAU influence and not enough Duke influen ence,” was how one Eastern Conferenence executive put it . . . . Kentucky’s Anthony An Davis is seen a s the only game-changer in June’s draft. But he needs to get much stronger and isn’t expected to start dominating for a good two-three years until he can battle the NBA’S big men on equal terms . . . . The sleeper everyone is talking about for the draft: Damian Lillard of Weber State, a guard out of Oakland who was No. 2 in the nation in scoring at 24.5 ppg. He’s a lottery pick.

You know it’s a lockout year when the NBA plays on Final Four championship night. Normally, the NBA is dark when the NCAA crowns its basketball champion. But when it’s trying to cram as many games as possible into the schedule because it’s in a lockout-shortened season, the NBA treats championship Monday like any other day. The league last played on Final Four Monday on March 29, 1999, the night Uconn won its first title, over Duke. The NBA put on four games that night, as part of a 50-game, lockout-shortened season, with Seattle and Vancouver among the teams that played. Whatever happened to those great NBA towns, anyway?